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Commissioner should apologise to Deputy Clare Daly – Ferris

Kerry Sinn Féin TD, Martin Ferris, has called on the garda commissioner to apologise to Deputy Clare Daly for the way she was treated by gardaí and the breach of her right to privacy when she was stopped and breathalysed in January 2013. He was speaking following the publication of the GSOC report into her arrest.

Deputy Ferris said:

“Clare Daly should receive an apology from the Garda Commissioner. Her right to privacy was denied and the presumption of her innocence violated by the incidents surrounding her arrest and its subsequent coverage in the print and broadcast media, as the report states.

“Although it is good to see that the GSOC report acknowledges these infringements of Deputy Daly’s rights, it is no comfort to anyone who believes that a functioning democracy must have a police force of the highest integrity, that no one has been held to account for either the violation of her rights or the leaks to media about her.

“I call on the Garda Commissioner to assure us that she will take action to prevent members of the gardaí or staff in garda premises from using PULSE to satisfy their curiosity, to leak to media or to glean information which is then used to harass people on social media.

“What does Commissioner O’Sullivan intend to do about this outrageous behaviour within the force and what has the Minister for Justice, Frances Fitzgerald to say about the findings of the report?”